Mystery on the Bounty: The family-level status of Pacificana cockayni Hogg, 1904 (Araneae).

The family-level placement of the species Pacificana cockayniHogg, 1904 (Araneae, Miturgidae) has been ambiguous for over a century, with the monotypic genus Pacificana initially placed in Agelenidae, later transferred to Amaurobioidinae (Anyphaenidae), and presently in Miturgidae. A recent work describing the male and molecular data consisting of a single mitochondrial gene, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, confirmed that the species is part of the marronoid clade; however, these data did not result in a conclusive family-level placement. Here, we use low-coverage whole genome sequencing (lcWGS) combined with data from the Sequence Read Archive to infer a phylogeny from ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and six legacy Sanger loci.

Revisiting the scorpion central nervous system using microCT.

The central nervous system (CNS) of Chelicerata has remained conserved since the Cambrian, yet few studies have examined its variability within chelicerate orders including Scorpiones. The scorpion CNS comprises the prosomal ganglion and opisthosomal ventral nerve cord. We visualize the scorpion CNS with microCT, explore morphological variation across taxa, compare the scorpion CNS to other arachnids, and create a terminology glossary and literature review to assist future studies.

A new species of alkali-sink Werner, 1934 (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae) from California's San Joaquin Valley.

Herein a new species of Werner, 1934 is described from alkali-sink habitats in the San Joaquin Desert of central California, It can be differentiated from other by a combination of morphological features including scalloped pedipalp fingers in males, specific setal counts and morphometric ratios, and specific patterns of fuscous pigmentation. It also inhabits a unique distribution allopatric with all other species except Hjelle, 1982. Photographs of a large series of live from across their range and detailed images of several morphological features are provided, their distribution is modeled, a haplotype network is presented, and details about their habitat, ecology, and conservation are discussed.

Two new alkali-sink specialist species of Werner 1934 (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae) from central California.

Herein we describe two new species of (Werner 1934) from California: from the Soda Lake playa at the center of the Carrizo Plain in San Luis Obispo county and from the Koehn Lake playa in the Mojave Desert of Kern County. They can be differentiated from other by a combination of morphological features including deeply scalloped pedipalp fingers in males, specific patterns of fuscous pigmentation, unique setal counts, and unique morphometric ratios. They can also be separated from one another by the latter three characters.

The flattie spiders of the Selenops isopodus/ species group (Araneae: Selenopidae) with a review of Selenops/ records from Colombia.

Here we examine the species of the Selenops isopodus species group: S. isopodus Mello-Leitão, 1941, S. arikok Crews, 2011, and S.

Genomic Characterization and Curation of UCEs Improves Species Tree Reconstruction.

Ultraconserved genomic elements (UCEs) are generally treated as independent loci in phylogenetic analyses. The identification pipeline for UCE probes does not require prior knowledge of genetic identity, only selecting loci that are highly conserved, single copy, without repeats, and of a particular length. Here, we characterized UCEs from 11 phylogenomic studies across the animal tree of life, from birds to marine invertebrates.

Publisher Correction: Island Ancestors and New World Biogeography: A Case Study from the Scorpions (Buthidae: Centruroidinae).

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Towards a synthesis of the Caribbean biogeography of terrestrial arthropods.

Background: The immense geologic and ecological complexity of the Caribbean has created a natural laboratory for interpreting when and how organisms disperse through time and space. However, competing hypotheses compounded with this complexity have resulted in a lack of unifying principles of biogeography for the region. Though new data concerning the timing of geologic events and dispersal events are emerging, powerful new analytical tools now allow for explicit hypothesis testing.

Island Ancestors and New World Biogeography: A Case Study from the Scorpions (Buthidae: Centruroidinae).

Scorpions are an excellent system for understanding biogeographical patterns. Most major scorpion lineages predate modern landforms, making them suitable for testing hypotheses of vicariance and dispersal. The Caribbean islands are endowed with a rich and largely endemic scorpion fauna, the origins of which have not been previously investigated with modern biogeographical methods.

Advancing mite phylogenomics: Designing ultraconserved elements for Acari phylogeny.

Mites (Acari) are one of the most diverse groups of life on Earth; yet, their evolutionary relationships are poorly understood. Also, the resolution of broader arachnid phylogeny has been hindered by an underrepresentation of mite diversity in phylogenomic analyses. To further our understanding of Acari evolution, we design targeted ultraconserved genomic elements (UCEs) probes, intended for resolving the complex relationships between mite lineages and closely related arachnids.

Evolutionary interpretations of mycobacteriophage biodiversity and host-range through the analysis of codon usage bias.

In an genomics course sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), undergraduate students have isolated and sequenced the genomes of more than 1,150 mycobacteriophages, creating the largest database of sequenced bacteriophages able to infect a single host, , a soil bacterium. Genomic analysis indicates that these mycobacteriophages can be grouped into 26 clusters based on genetic similarity. These clusters span a continuum of genetic diversity, with extensive genomic mosaicism among phages in different clusters.

Islands within islands: Diversification of tailless whip spiders (Amblypygi, Phrynus) in Caribbean caves.

Islands have played a key role in understanding species formation ever since Darwin's work on the Galapagos and Wallace's work in the Malay Archipelago. Like oceanic islands, habitat 'islands', such as mountaintops and caves similarly may drive diversification. Here we examine patterns of diversification in the tailless whip spider genus Phrynus Larmarck, 1809 (Amblypygida: Phrynidae) a system that shows evidence of diversification under the influence of 'islands within islands'.

Phylogenomic resolution of scorpions reveals multilevel discordance with morphological phylogenetic signal.

Scorpions represent an iconic lineage of arthropods, historically renowned for their unique bauplan, ancient fossil record and venom potency. Yet, higher level relationships of scorpions, based exclusively on morphology, remain virtually untested, and no multilocus molecular phylogeny has been deployed heretofore towards assessing the basal tree topology. We applied a phylogenomic assessment to resolve scorpion phylogeny, for the first time, to our knowledge, sampling extensive molecular sequence data from all superfamilies and examining basal relationships with up to 5025 genes.

A new species of Centruroides Marx (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Panama and new distribution records for Centruroides bicolor (Pocock, 1898) and Centruroides granosus (Thorell, 1876).

A new species, Centruroides panamensis n. sp., from the foothills of Volcán Barú in the Province of Chiriquí, Panama is described with a extremely narrow distributional range.

Impact of an educational intervention on residents' knowledge of pediatric disaster medicine.

Background: Globally, natural and created events have underscored the vulnerability of children in disasters. There is an unmet need for a standardized pediatric disaster medicine (PDM) curriculum.

Objective: To create and implement a PDM course, measure course efficacy, and assess residents' attitudes toward and experience in disaster medicine.